


Star Sleepers

by lost_spook



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: 500 prompts, Gen, Space Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 05:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2298602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/lost_spook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The TARDIS lands in the strangest places sometimes…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star Sleepers

**Author's Note:**

> Written for flowsoffire in the [500 Prompts Meme](http://lost-spook.livejournal.com/300554.html): # 191. You're/He's/She's/I'm/They're only sleeping — First Doctor and companion(s) of your choosing.

It was Barbara who found them first. When she edged her way out of the narrow metal corridor and into what appeared to be the central area of the space ship, she could see on each side, arranged in tiers of three, what looked like glass coffins – each one of them containing a human body.

“Ian,” Barbara said, catching her breath in horror at the unexpected sight, and reaching out instinctively for his hand.

He was close behind her. “Whatever is this place?”

“I told you,” said the Doctor, who seemed to have found another way in, and now arrived in front of them. “It’s a space ship.”

Barbara stared around her. “Full of dead bodies? But why, Doctor?” She moved forward, instantly trying to work out an answer to her own question: “I suppose – possibly very rich people, if this is the future – cryogenic suspension –?”

“Could be, couldn’t it?” said Ian, crossing over to the nearest of the metal and glass pods to get a better look. “Seems an awful lot of trouble to go to, though. Doctor?”

The Doctor was frowning about him, distracted by some thought of his own. “Hmm, what was that?”

“Vicki!” said Barbara repressively, catching sight of the youngest of their group peering into a coffin so closely that her nose was pressed up against the glass. It was hardly respectful behaviour – and you never knew what could be lurking about in unknown places. “I don’t think you should do that!”

Vicki looked up in surprise. “Oh, Barbara, it’s all right. I won’t wake them!”

“ _Wake_ them?” said Barbara. “I shouldn’t think anyone could.”

Vicki laughed. “Oh, Barbara, don’t you know? Haven’t you heard about the early colonisation ships? They’re only sleeping. Of course, it hasn’t been done for years – but some of the ships are still out there, you know, journeying on even though now we can go ever so much faster. I mean, in my time, that is.”

“Is she right, Doctor?” asked Ian.

The Doctor finally turned his attention back to his travelling companions. “Oh, yes, yes, my boy. And from what I can see, all the vital signs seem to be as they should be. Check them for yourself, if you like. I wonder where they’re going, hmm?”

“It doesn’t mean a thing to me,” said Ian, examining the small display square on the nearest pod. There were lights on each one and illuminated numbers, but he’d need a manual to understand them.

Barbara and Ian exchanged a glance, and she took his arm.

“How funny that you didn’t know,” said Vicki.

Barbara said, “Well, yes, I daresay that comes of us being so very old, doesn’t it?”

“I suppose it _does_ ,” said Vicki, with sympathy, entirely missing any irony. “Of course, I’ve never _seen_ one before either, but I have seen pictures – and, well, what would be the point of sending _dead_ people into space? They couldn’t do anything, could they?”

The Doctor put an arm around Vicki. “It has been known, my dear. Some civilisations have some quite fascinating rituals for dealing with death. You should see the burial ships of the Mirgoth Emperors. Quite amazing! Such a technologically advanced civilisation, but they actually believed they could send their rulers to the Gods by launching them into space.”

“Like flying pyramids in space?” said Ian, with a grin, both enjoying the story and clearly not entirely believing it.

The Doctor nodded. “Exactly! Now these people – their presence here is much more a matter of practicality. And bravery, too.”

“Bravery?” said Vicki.

He tapped her nose. “Well, would you like to volunteer for such a trip, child?”

“Who wants to be freeze-dried, eh?” said Ian, and Barbara poked him.

“If you’re going to say anything about Captain Birdseye at the helm, it’s not in very good taste,” she told him.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

The Doctor wasn’t paying attention to them; he was looking around the ship again. “There is one thing wrong, though,” he said. “Dear, dear, I fear that must be our fault. I did notice something rather odd when the Ship materialised. An odd sound – that sort of juddering noise. Yes, I think that probably explains it.”

“Sorry to be dim, Doctor,” said Ian. “What explains what exactly?”

The Doctor turned. “Well, just think about it, Chetterton. Apply your mind to the problem! All these people here, hibernating, yes – and here we are, wandering around quite happily, completely unobstructed by anything. Don’t you see it?”

“No, I don’t,” said Ian. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good thing.”

Barbara caught at Ian’s arm. “I see – I think. If there’s no one here to keep watch on them, there should be some sort of automated defense system, shouldn’t there? In case someone they didn’t want got inside.”

“Precisely,” said the Doctor. “I fear our Ship had something of an argument with the systems here on arriving, and we had better set things straight before we leave. It wouldn’t do to leave these poor fellows to be set upon by more unscrupulous guests than ourselves, would it?”

 

It took the Doctor nearly half an hour of fiddling with a complex control panel on the wall, while Vicki stood by and handed him instruments, frequently the wrong ones, and made interested commentary on the work.

“I’d help,” said Ian, wryly, to Barbara, having both wandered back to the main chamber to wait till it was done, “only I think I’d need a crash course in advanced thirty-first century electronics – or whatever year it is this time.”

The Doctor had explained that the purple lights on the display signified that everything was well, and that a yellow or green light meant one of several things had gone wrong, so they walked about, checking on the sleepers, but found nothing amiss. 

Barbara, having finished, turned around to meet Ian in the middle of the sleepers’ chamber. “There’s something eerie about it, though, isn’t there? Rather like wandering around in Sleeping Beauty’s castle before the prince arrives.”

“It makes you appreciate travel by TARDIS, doesn’t it?” said Ian. “I can’t say that I’d fancy it.”

Barbara gave a small, bittersweet smile. “I don’t know. Perhaps they’ll get where they’re going before we do.”

“We will get home again,” Ian said, gripping her shoulder firmly. “And in the meantime, I’d rather see where I’m going – especially with the Doctor driving!”

She laughed. “Oh, I know. And I’m fond of the Doctor and of Vicki, but still – I was only thinking that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad. To go to sleep and wake up home again.”

“Really?”

“No,” she said. “Of course not, not really. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Well, _some_ of it!”

Before Ian could reply, Vicki came running after them to tell them that the Doctor was ready and they all needed to get back inside the TARDIS at once. 

“We’d be electrocuted the minute it was switched on,” she told them, and proceeded to illustrate their possible fates with an exaggerated grimace. “Atomised!”

Ian and Barbara followed her back, and pausing in the TARDIS doorway, Ian said, “I don’t understand how the Doctor’s going to safely turn it back on, that’s all.”

The Doctor joined them, looking particularly pleased with himself. “Well, my dear Chesterton, see this piece of string? One end is tied to the switch in question; the other I have in my hand here. I trust the principle is not too complex for you, hmm?”

“I might have known,” said Ian with a grin, and disappeared into the TARDIS. 

The Doctor paused from just inside the door to pull on his piece of string, and then closed the door. 

Moments later the time machine vanished, leaving the sleepers to fly on in peace, two very different sets of long distance explorers passing by in the stars.


End file.
